The question was simple: if you had a magic wand to change one thing in college football, what would it be? USA Today's Nicole Auerbach posed that query to Colorado's Mike MacIntyre and Colorado State's Mike Bobo.
Here's what they said:
Bobo: "If I could change one thing, I'd like to slow down the recruiting process. You officially can't offer a kid until the fall of his junior year with a written offer, but I would say we can't offer freshmen, 10th graders, eighth graders. I think it's getting out of hand.
"It's one thing that we're on top of it and ahead of the game, but I think it hurts the young athlete more than it helps them. It's hurting high school coaches, having to deal with athletes at a young age already getting offers and think they've arrived and don't want to listen to their high school coach. To me, the high school coach is the most important guy in these athletes' growth."
MacIntyre: "My 10th grade boy came home and said, 'Did you see LeBron James' boy is getting stuff from colleges and LeBron said, 'Stop it now'? To me, that's what I'm saying. It's kind of gone crazy a little bit. Recruiting is your lifeblood, you need players, and all of that. But if you had a magic wand, that is something I would like to fix. So young people can grow up."
I've gone on record before on this subject, but the way to fix this issue is to follow the Pelini Plan and remove the verbal offer entirely, and make every scholarship offer immediately NLI-ready on the spot.